Movies Come To Life With Water Breathing Suit

Science Fiction lovers remember well the scene from 'The Abyss.' Tragedy had hit an exploration rig deep under the ocean, everyone's lives were on the line and to save them the hero, Ed Harris, had to don an experimental military scuba suit that allowed divers to go to extreme depths by having them breathe a special fluid. In essense, he had to breathe water. Fast forward twenty or so years and movie fiction has once again become science reality with American inventor Dr. Arnold Lande's astounding new suit that he says will allow wearers to breathe liquid air.

The suit, if it works the way the inventor says it will, is a remarkable breakthrough in a field that has seen years of frustration in that humans have found it impossible to dive to great depth. The only way divers can work for long spells at depth now is by saturation diving, a complex technique in which divers ascend in a pressurized container, sometimes taking weeks. It's all because of the nitrogen build up in the blood that occurs during scuba diving, and the deeper a diver goes, the worse the build-up becomes, forcing a diver to have to make several "compression stops" on the way up to dispell the nitrogen.

Dr. Lande's new suit is supposed to eliminate all of that by allowing divers to inhale what are known as perfluorocarbons (PFCs), rich with O2. PFC is a liquid that has the ability to break down large amounts of gas. Just like in the movie, the diver would wear an enclosed helmet that would fill with the liquid air which would replace all the air in the lungs, sinus and ear cavities. But unlike the film, an artificial gill would be attached to the femoral vein in the wearers leg to release the CO2 we exhale naturally.

Another scene where art imitates life is when Ed Harris tries to breathe in the liquid air for the first time and gags, kicking and writhing. The same would happen in reality, which would be one of the biggest hurdles in actually using the suit (that and the fact that you'd have these tubes sticking out of your leg).

It may seem like some far-fetched science, but in actuality, the technique of using highly-oxygenated PFCs has been in use treating premature babies since the 1970s. Also, the U.S. Navy Seals have experimented with the technology in the early 1980s.

Biggest hurdle: finding adventurous people willing to try out the new liquid air suit. Want to give it a shot?

sources: independent.co.uk, mnn.com, mid-day.com, Graphic: Rob Brooks

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